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Camille Corot was born in Paris on July 26, 1796, in a house on the Quai by the rue du Bac, now demolished. His family were bourgeois people, and unlike the experience of some of his artistic colleagues, throughout his life he never felt the want of money. After an education at Rouen, he apprenticed to a draper, but hated commercial life and despised what he called its "business tricks," yet he faithfully remained in it until he was 26, when his father consented to his adopting the profession of art.
Corot learned little from his masters. He visited Italy on three occasions, and two of his Roman studies hang in the Louvre. A regular contributor to the Salon, in 1846 the French government decorated him with the cross of the Legion of Honour, and he was promoted to an officer in 1867. His many friends considered, nevertheless, that he was officially neglected, and in 1874, a short time before his death, they presented him with a gold medal. He died in Paris on February 22, 1875 and was buried at Père Lachaise.
A number of followers called themselves Corot's pupils. The best known are Boudin, Lepine, Chintreuil, Français, Le Roux and DeFaux.
During the last few years of his life he earned large sums with his pictures, which were in great demand. In 1871 he gave £2000 for the poor of Paris (where he remained during the siege), and his continued charity was long the subject of remark
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